


Brave Little Tangerines

by katikat



Category: Our Skyy (TV), รักไม่ระบุสถานะ | Dark Blue Kiss (TV)
Genre: Angst, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, What-If
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-10
Updated: 2020-03-10
Packaged: 2021-02-28 20:08:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,161
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23093077
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/katikat/pseuds/katikat
Summary: Kao lied to Pete about the damned curse. Now Pete is tired and cranky and he wants to go home. But where the heck is Kao?! The pharmacy he went to is just a few blocks away, after all… (Unbeta'd)
Relationships: Kao/Pete (Kiss: The Series)
Comments: 14
Kudos: 144





	Brave Little Tangerines

**Author's Note:**

> For the sake of the story, let’s assume that Our Skyy takes place after Dark Blue Kiss, okay? Also, I’m no doctor so expect a lot of hand-waving and, well, creative licence.

Pete’s really, _really_ angry. As if he didn’t tell Kao many times in the past not to lie to him. And yet, here they are again. Here there’s _Pete_ , carrying a half-pint of a plant - still heavy, though - and punched in the face. _Dammit_!

And where the heck is Kao? The pharmacy he decided to go to pick up some disinfection and who knows what else - despite Pete’s stout protests - is only a few blocks away, it’s not like it’s a trip to Mars or something. 

Five minutes pass. Then ten. And fifteen.

 _Dammit_!

Pete pulls out his cellphone and calls Kao, more than ready to give his lover a real dressing down. Because he’s tired and cranky and he wants to go home and take a shower and forget this day ever happened.

The phone keeps ringing. And ringing. And ringing. 

Kao doesn’t pick up. And Pete feels the first jab of worry in the vicinity of his stomach.

He smothers it with anger, though, and hanging up, he gets up, grabs the darned plant and stomps angrily down the pier and towards the pharmacy whose sign keeps blinking merrily in the distance like a beacon in the dark.

Pete doesn’t come across Kao on the way there and when he enters the shop, there’s no one inside either. Nobody but the pharmacist. He feels that bitter jab of worry again. Where _is_ Kao?

“Excuse me?” Pete says as he steps up to the counter, and when the pretty girl there smiles at him invitingly, he continues with, “Hello, hi. I’m looking for my boyfriend? Same red shirt, my height but really pale? Pretty eyes?”

“Oh yes, he was here a few minutes ago,” the girl tells him. “He seemed rather worried. He bought some things for treating scrapes - for you, I guess?” She points at the reddened, swollen corner of Pete’s mouth.

“Hm,” Pete replies, self-consciously touching that bruise in the making. “Where did he go then?”

She frowns a little. “The way he came from? The way you came from? You can’t have missed him…”

Well, Pete did, apparently. 

He thanks the pharmacist and leaves, the door clicking shut behind him. And then he stands there, on the sidewalk lit by the pharmacy’s large windows, and he looks around in puzzlement. Where _did_ Kao go?

More than a little anxious now, Pete pulls out his cellphone once more and dials Kao’s number again, muttering, “Pick up, Kao. Pick up the damn phone!”

Then he hears the ringing, the distinct ringtone - _Kao’s_ ringtone - whispering to him from somewhere nearby. It goes on and on and on and Pete starts walking, towards the melody that grows stronger and louder with each step he takes. 

There’s a dark alley, just a narrow passage between two rundown buildings, a place where people throw away their trash when the dumpsters are too full or they’re too lazy and they don’t care. And Pete stops right at its mouth because it’s where the ringing is coming from, that dark alley - and something rattles as he kicks it accidentally. 

Pete looks down. It’s a white plastic bag with the pharmacy logo on it, dropped and left lying carelessly on the pavement. There’s a bottle of disinfection and a package of sterile gauze inside it, the things Kao set off to buy. Pete swallows hard.

“Kao?” he calls out, stepping over the bag and into the alley. 

There’s no answer but the ringing of Kao’s phone and Pete can’t see anything. He switches on the flashlight on his cellphone, aiming it further down the alley. “Kao? You there?” he calls out again with trepidation in his voice.

And then he sees it. Kao’s sneaker, his jeans-clad leg sticking out from behind a rusty dumpster. There, on the ground. Not moving.

 _Shit_!

Yelling Kao’s name again, Pete drops the plant and rushes forward, towards his boyfriend who’s lying on the wet, filthy pavement, there, on his side with his left arm outstretched - reddened and already bruising and swelling heavily, clearly broken - and his right one curled around his stomach. His eyes are closed.

Pete drops to his knees next to Kao, reaching out with his trembling hand. He touches Kao’s throat - bruised, there are bruises forming on his skin, encircling his throat - to feel for his pulse and he lets out a shaky, unsteady breath, one he didn’t even realize he was holding, when he finds Kao’s skin warm to the touch and his heart beating. He’s alive, _Kao’s alive_!

“Kao?” Pete whispers, leaning down to stroke Kao’s pale face, so pale it looks almost grey in the harsh glare of the cellphone flashlight. “Kao, you hear me?” 

A split lip, a swelling cheek - someone beat Kao up, Pete realizes and for a moment, he’s seized with fury so terrible he almost chokes on it. But then he runs his fingers over the back of Kao’s head and they come away wet, sticky and red. _Bloody_. 

No. _No no no no no_!

Pete hangs up, the cellphone in Kao’s back pocket falls silent, and he calls for help. Someone needs to help them, help _Kao_. Because Kao’s hurt. 

_Kao’s hurt_!

xXx

Pete holds Kao’s hand all the way to the hospital. His anger is forgotten, it’s all in the past, unimportant now, his previous irritation paling in comparison with Kao’s unresponsive pallor even more terrible now in the sharp, unforgiving light of the ambulance.

 _Wake up, Kao_ , Pete pleads, terrified and desperate, stroking Kao’s knuckles with his thumbs. _Please, wake up_.

Kao doesn’t.

xXx

From the ER’s waiting room, Pete calls his dad. And then Kao’s mom. It’s one of the hardest things he’s ever had to do. Afterwards, he doesn’t remember what he told her, only that he kept apologizing to her, again and again. For what, he’s not sure. For not taking better care of Kao? For letting this happen to him? For stewing in his anger while someone beat Kao unconscious? Pete doesn’t know. All he knows is that he’s very, very, _very_ sorry.

Their parents arrive and Pete tells them what happened. Again. And then, at some point, as hours go by, the cops come and Pete tells his story _again_. They want to know it all, everything, every gory detail while they take notes and look bored. Pete guesses it’s probably nothing new for them, people get beat up everyday in this city. But this time, this time it was Kao, _his_ Kao, and Pete has to swallow his anger at their callousness. Causing trouble won’t help Kao and Kao is all he has to think of now.

“So,” one of the cops, the one chewing endlessly on a sweet smelling gum, says, staring down at his scribbled notes, “he wasn’t robbed and from what the EMTs could tell us, there were no signs of a sexual assault…”

Those words, thrown out so carelessly, steal Pete’s breath and make his heart skip a beat. And then another. Because this, something so terrible, didn’t even occur to him, that someone could hurt Kao like this. If someone did, if they-if… Pete’s mind refuses to even contemplate that possibility, hitting a blank wall, again and again.

“You think he might’ve gotten into it with someone? Bit off more than he could handle?” the cop continues, looking up at Pete.

It occurs to Pete again that this men really don’t know Kao, they know nothing about him, about the person Kao is. And suddenly Pete feels the need to explain it to them, to make them truly understand who Kao is, why it is so terrible what happened to him, to _him_ in particular. 

“Kao wouldn’t do that,” Pete states with conviction. “He’s the nicest, _kindest_ person you’re ever going to meet in your life.”

The cops exchange a look. “Right,” the gum chewing one says, voice heavy with disbelieving sarcasm. _Everyone says that_ , remains unsaid but hanging pointedly in the air.

It makes Pete angry. “No, you don’t _get_ it. In Kao’s case, it’s not just words. Everyone who’s ever met him, spoke to him, got to _know_ him liked him. His students, his fellow teachers, _everyone_! There’s not a person in the world who would want to hurt… _him_.” 

Pete stops. There’s no one who had any reason to hurt _Kao_.

_“You want to be a hero?!”_

_Shit_.

The cops must’ve noticed Pete’s reaction because they exchange another look, then they prompt him. “Yes?”

Pete swallows. “There was a man. Kao and I, we met him on the bus. He was taking pictures of some girl secretly, _inappropriate_ pictures. I noticed and I stopped him. I _punched_ him. Then later on - actually only a few minutes before-before what happened to Kao - we came across the same guy again, him and his buddy. He recognized me. And he punched me.” He touches his swollen mouth.

The gum chewing cop nods and writes it all down. “Can you give us a description? Would you recognize him again?” he asks.

Pete nods. He tells them what the men looked like. He doesn’t want to believe it was them. Because it it is so, if they did this to Kao, then… then this is his fault, Kao’s beating. 

_“You want to be a hero?!”_

No, Pete didn’t. He just… he _reacted_. Like he always does. Because he can keep his own in a fight, he knows he can. And if the guy came after him again, Pete would’ve stood his ground and gladly so. But if that cowardly bastard went after _Kao_ to hurt Pete, if Pete provoked him into doing that to _Kao_ … Pete’s not sure if he would ever forgive himself.

“Alright,” the cop says, “we’ll look into that.”

Then, before they can ask Pete anything more, the doctor comes in, an older lady with her graying hair in a bun, and she asks for Kao’s family. Forgetting all about the cops, Pete rushes forward to find out what’s going on and how Kao is, if he’s alright, _when_ he’s going to be alright because no other option is allowed, not in Pete’s opinion.

But Pete’s opinion doesn’t matter, apparently. The world doesn’t care about Pete’s opinion, about his anguish as it turns out.

“… broken arm… broken ribs… contusions to… but our main concern is the skull fracture he… intracranial bleeding… swelling… pressure on the brain and…”

There’s white noise in Pete’s ears. He feels sick and hot and sweaty.

“Coma.”

They don’t let him see Kao.

xXx

Pete’s dad drives him home. He asks Pete to stay with him at the villa, but Pete doesn’t want to. He wants to go home, to his and Kao’s home where the sheets smell of Kao’s shampoo and there’s still the cake that Kao loves so much in the fridge. 

And then he remembers.

“Can we stop somewhere first?” Pete asks his dad. His father gives him a curious look but nods.

They stop at the alley where Pete found Kao. He didn’t want to come here out of some-some _masochistic need_ to punish himself by returning to the scene of the crime, no. He’s here for…

The little tangerine is still there. The pot is cracked and someone must’ve kicked the plant over and stepped on it because several branches are bent, some even broken. But it’s still there. _Kao’s_ tangerine. He isn’t sure why exactly Kao wanted a tangerine, why he _really_ wanted it, he never got around to asking after their fight, but Pete couldn’t just leave it here. 

He picks it up and dusts it off a little - and then he happens to look into the alley and…

He runs.

xXx

His father is reluctant to leave him alone but it’s what Pete wants. He _wants_ to be alone. He loves his dad dearly but right now, he can’t take his sympathetic glances, his soft words. He just… he can’t take them.

But then, when his father leaves, the house suddenly feels too quiet, too empty without Kao’s laugh and his happy presence, without his soft humming and the silent scratching of his pen on paper. Pete can’t stand the unexpected vastness of their little house.

So he goes out into their garden to plant the tangerine, in a place he thinks Kao would like. By then it’s early afternoon and Pete’s trembling with exhaustion but he’s too wired to sleep. Too _afraid_ to sleep. He wants to be with Kao, see for _himself_ that his boyfriend is alive, but they won’t let him in, not into the ICU. Pete’s just Kao’s _lover_ , not his _family_ , not in their eyes, not according to their stupid rules.

When Kao’s okay again, when he’s back home again, safe and sound, they will get married. They’re going to take a trip abroad, to some country that allows this, and they’re going to marry. No one, not _anyone_ will dare say then that Kao is not Pete’s family. And Pete is Kao’s.

With the tangerine planted and watered, Pete sits down on the grass and stares at the poor sapling, as broken as Kao. And though he tries to stop his mind from going places, it refuses to listen. It shows him that alley again, in vivid detail, the once white and now grimy wall and the rusty stain on it exactly where Kao’s head would be if someone threw him against that wall, if someone smashed his head against it again and _again_ , to stun him or to silence him but definitely to _hurt_ him. 

“… skull fracture…”

Pete cracks too. He cries so hard he can barely breathe.

xXx

It’s not until the early hours of the next morning that Pete falls asleep but shortly after that he’s woken up again by a phone call. It’s the police. They arrested the man Pete described to them and they need him to come in and identify him. 

Pete goes. His eyes burn and his joints feel heavy from the lack of sleep but he goes. Because if this man really hurt Kao, the bastard needs to pay for it.

He recognizes the guy immediately, picks him out of a line-up without hesitation. Yes, this is him, that’s the fucker! Pete’s sure of it, as sure as he breathes. Only when they lead the man away does Pete notice the swollen knuckles on his hands. He didn’t have those when he punched Pete. No, you don’t get bruises like that from hitting someone once, Pete knows this from experience. You only hurt yourself like this when you punch a person over and over again. 

_Kao…_

Pete swallows hard.

“The CCTV at the pharmacy caught him and his buddy following your friend after he left the shop,” the gum-chewing cop from last night tells Pete. Today, there’s no gum and the man doesn’t look bored anymore. No, he looks tired, as tired as Pete feels. Pete feels guilty for thinking badly of him yesterday.

“Can you prove that he did it?” Pete asks quietly.

The cop sighs. “All we have is circumstantial,” he admits. “We might find traces of his DNA on your friend’s clothes but to get him convicted for sure, we really need your friend’s testimony.”

Kao’s testimony. They did all they could but now they need Kao to wake up.

Pete needs that, too. 

_Please, wake up. Please._

xXx

It takes several days for Kao’s health to improve so that he can be moved out of the ICU and to a normal hospital room. By then, Pete’s a wreck. He knows he should be there for Kao’s mom, her pillar of strength, so to speak, but the truth is, he can feel himself falling apart, bit by bit. 

He can’t get the image of Kao ashen face, the feel of his slack, unresponsive hand in his out of his mind. These impressions are so ingrained, so overwhelming that they keep him awake at night. If they at least let him see Kao… 

And then they do, finally, and Pete cries. 

He sits there, at Kao’s bed, holding his right hand, the one not encased in plaster, and he cries without making a sound, staring at Kao’s pale face, at the dark bruises encircling his eyes and the stark white bandages covering his shaved head. He thought he would feel better if they only let him see his lover but he doesn’t. He feels more anchored, true, like he has a purpose now - to keep it together for the man lying in the hospital bed - but at the same time, nothing changed. 

Kao is here but he isn’t, not really. He’s still in a coma.

Pete comes in every day after that, from the earliest they let him in till they actually kick him out. He listens to the doctors and he learns the nurses’ names and the hospital personnel, they all come to know them too, Pete and his lover Kao, the pretty man in a coma in room 302.

And then the cops call Pete and they tell him they had to let the suspect go, the man who punched Pete and almost certainly beat Kao half to death. Without Kao’s testimony, they didn’t have enough on him to hold him. They had to set him free.

 _Shit_.

xXx

It’s evening again and the visiting hours are ending. Another day gone. And Kao still hasn’t woken up.

Pete just sits there, his breathing is ragged and he’s hiding his face in his hands, fingers pressed hard into his eyes to push back tears. For a moment, just for a moment that day he considered what he would do if Kao never woke up. It horrified him that this thought even crossed his mind. 

Rubbing his eyes, Pete takes a deep breath and gets up, and just like every day, he leans over Kao’s bed and takes Kao’s face gently in his hands, stroking his cheekbones with his thumbs. “Hey, love,” he whispers, “I have to go now. But I’ll come back tomorrow again, okay? And then you have to wake up for me because it’s getting really boring here without you.” 

Smiling bravely, Pete leans down to press a kiss to Kao’s forehead, running his hand gently over the soft, fur-like short hair on Kao’s head, free of bandages now. Forcefully, he stops himself from thinking of how long it’s been now since Kao got hurt.

“I love you,” Pete tells his boyfriend, closing his eyes and resting his forehead against Kao’s for a moment. Then he straightens up and with a last squeeze of Kao’s hand he goes, leaving for the day. 

He says goodnight to the women clustered around the nurses’ station and he tries very hard not to see their sympathetic glances directed his way. He takes the elevator down to the lobby and he says goodnight to the men at the reception desk downstairs and he tries very hard not to see _their_ sympathetic looks either. He’s almost getting used to them, what a terrifying thing.

And then Pete walks outside and he takes a deep breath that doesn’t refresh him at all, and walking across the parking lot, he gets into his car, one of the few left there this late. And then he sees the soft little polar bear in its silly blue t-shirt that he took with him from home that morning, a gift given to him by Kao before that Pete now wanted him to have. He forgot it on the passenger seat.

Smiling, Pete takes it in his hands and squeezes its soft belly lightly. “Get well soon, love,” the bear says in Pete’s voice. He knows it’s just a silly toy but it has such a deep meaning, for the both them, him and Kao. 

And so Pete decides to take the toy up to Kao’s room despite the late hour. He knows the nurses have a soft spot for him, that they will let him in for a moment, even though the visiting hours are over by now.

Nodding to himself, Pete gets out of the car and goes.

xXx

Turns out, the silly polar bear saves Kao _again_.

Because when Pete sneaks down the corridor under the mock frowns of the night staff and opens the door of Kao’s room, there’s a man dressed as a nurse standing over Kao in the dark - and he’s pressing a pillow against his face, smothering him.

Hearing Pete’s “Hey!” the man shoots up and twists around instinctively and Pete throws the toy right in the would-be killer’s face. The man’s not expecting it and so he recoils, dropping the pillow, and Pete uses his momentary distraction to barrel into him. 

Together they hit Kao’s bed and fall over it, crashing to the floor hard with Pete landing on top. He can hear commotion in the hallway but he doesn’t pay it any attention. He’s filled with dread - not for himself but for Kao - which fuels his anger, fury really. He starts hitting the man with all his strength, again and again, easily blocking the guy’s punches, and he doesn’t stop until the room’s flooded with light and someone grabs him from behind and drags him away.

There are nurses, orderlies, doctors even and they all stare at Pete as if he lost it. He catches on pretty fast, realizing that all they can see is a man dressed as a nurse, the apparent victim here, _Pete’s_ victim. They’re even helping the man get up. No, _no way_!

“He tried to kill Kao!” Pete yells, tearing at the hands holding him back.

An elderly doctor steps in, trying to calm Pete down with an indulgent, “Now look here, son–”

But then Pete takes his first good look at the man and he freezes. It’s the pervert from the bus. The bastard whom Pete identified at the police station. The fucker the cops had to let go because without Kao’s testimony, they couldn’t actually prove anything to him.

“You!” Pete snaps. “This is the guy who put Kao in the hospital! He’s the one who attacked us back then!”

Everyone turns to the man, doubts replacing their disbelief at Pete’s actions. And when the wannabe nurse looks around covertly and takes a step forward, towards the door, those who helped him stand before now grab him and hold him fast.

Pete looks around the room. “Call the cops and ask them if you don’t believe me. No,” he corrects himself immediately, “call them in any case. _Right now_! This man tried to murder Kao, he tried to smother him with a pillow.” He points at the damning evidence on the floor.

And that’s when Pete hears it. It’s Kao, he’s wheezing for breath and his gasps sound so loud in the suddenly too quiet room.

“Kao…” Pete whispers, freeing himself from the orderlies’ slackened grip, and he throws himself towards the bed, lifting Kao up, propping him up against his chest to help Kao breathe. “Kao? Kao, breathe, please!”

Everybody starts moving at once then, someone rushes out to call the police, others move in to drag the attacker out, the doctors step up to the bed to check on Kao, urging Pete to let go of him, and it’s one big mess, loud and chaotic, but Pete is hardly aware of it, any of it, because he’s looking down at Kao who’s resting heavily in his arms… and _staring up at him_.

“Kao?” Pete whispers, uncertainly, too afraid to trust in what he sees, that Kao’s awake, that Kao’s back. 

The doctors try to take Kao away from Pete but he pushes their hands away angrily, and whispering a wondrous “Kao?” again, he lifts his hand to touch Kao’s face, stroke his cheek.

Kao blinks slowly, groggily up at him and then he cracks a smile, the tiniest of smiles, really, but a smile nonetheless and his hand flops limply against Pete’s leg in a very tame attempt at patting Pete reassuringly. 

And Pete? Pete kisses him.

xXx

They try to make Pete leave. He politely tells them to shove it - to see Kao scowl at him for his rudeness does Pete’s soul a world of good, it really does - and they don’t press the issue. Considering that Kao, a patient of theirs, almost got killed on their watch, Pete thinks it a wise decision.

Besides, he would love to see them try and get him to leave when Kao has yet to let go of his hand. His grip is tight and his skin a little clammy, betraying his anxiety, though Kao hides it pretty well.

The thing is, Kao doesn’t remember how he ended up here, what happened which turns out to be a real irony in itself as Pete’s favorite gum-chewing cop sums up when he arrives together with his partner to take their statements.

“If I understand it correctly,” he says, tapping his pen against his notepad, “you don’t remember anything that happened that night, when the man attacked you?”

Kao shakes his head. “S-sorry,” he stutters out, furrowing his brows in frustration. 

Some words seem namely rather difficult for him to pronounce now, some sounds make his tongue trip a little, but the doctors assure them that with a little time and a thorough speech therapy, it should pass. It’s a little frustrating to Kao and it does make Pete worry - but in the grand scheme of things, this is nothing. They can deal with that.

The cop barks out a laugh. “So, we had to let that guy go because we couldn’t pin the assault on him without your testimony. And to make sure you couldn’t testify against him, he decided to get rid of you. Only for you to tell us now that you don’t remember anything. If the guy spared himself the effort, he would’ve been off to hook. Now, we’re going to nail his ass for attempted murder and this time he won’t wiggle out of it, that I can promise you.” There’s steel in his voice when he says that and Pete believes him.

Shortly thereafter, the cops leave and then Pete’s dad and Kao’s mom arrive and they both hug Kao, hard. Kao snuggles into his mom’s arms happily and though Pete’s dad’s hug surprises him a little, he appreciates it. A _lot_.

Then the doctors swarm in and insist on wheeling Kao away for some tests - it’s still barely light outside but an attempted murder right under their noses makes the collective staff rather hyper as it turns out - and when their parents leave again, promising to come back during visiting hours, Pete’s left alone, for the first time in hours. 

And then he starts to shake. 

First his hands start trembling, then he’s seized with shivers all over - and he can’t seem to make it stop. He hides in the adjacent bathroom, locking the door and sliding it down to sit heavily on the floor. Then he presses his hands against his mouth and he cries, he sobs so hard he can barely breathe. 

Because Kao almost died. That man, that… _bastard_ almost killed Kao. If Pete didn’t turn up with the toy, Kao would be dead now. He wouldn’t be undergoing tests, he wouldn’t be answering questions and worrying about his stutter, he would be _dead_. _Gone_. Lost to Pete _forever_.

Pete cries and he cries till he feels sick.

xXx

“I’m sorry,” Pete says, running his fingers through Kao’s short hair, rubbing the scars left behind in places where the doctors had to cut Kao open to fix him.

“What for?” Kao asks. He’s lying on his side facing Pete and holding Pete’s hand with his right one. His left forearm is still in the cast - but luckily not for long now, considering Kao keeps complaining about how much it itches.

“I got angry at you that night, when you got hurt,” Pete explains. “I’m sorry about that.”

Kao frowns. “I don’t remember. What did I do?”

Pete sighs. “For some reason, you lied to me about some stupid curse and–”

“I actually did that?” Kao’s eyebrows shoot up, then he grins sheepishly. “I did, I guess-ss.” 

“But why?” That question’s been bothering Pete ever since that night. 

“I wanted to s… s-s-spend s-some time with you, that’s-s-s all,” Kao replies, frowning at his stuttered es’. 

Pete blinks at him, stunned. “Spend time with me? We _live_ together! We’re together all the time!” 

Kao frowns, rubbing Pete’s hand with his thumb. “Not really, you know. Now that I picked up more class-sses-s and you got a new job…” He blows out his breath. “I jus-sst miss… miss-ssed you.”

Pete’s heart clenches a little, hearing that. If he just listened that night instead of exploding with anger… 

Stroking Kao’s hair gently, Pete leans closer, staring into his lover’s eyes. _Damn, Kao’s eyes are beautiful_ , he thinks, before saying, “Next time you want to spend time together, just tell me, alright?”

“You won’t complain?” Kao asks suspiciously.

Complain? After the ordeal of the past several weeks? After living in fear that he would never get the chance to talk to Kao again, that he would never get to hold him again or kiss him again? “No, I won’t complain, I swear,” he says earnestly, sealing his promise with a kiss.

xXx

It’s a couple more weeks before Kao’s allowed to return home. His stuttering gets better, it’s barely noticeable by then. What doesn’t go away, is the tremor in his left hand, the one that got broken that night. Nerve damage, the doctors say. The more tired Kao gets, the more evident the trembling in his fingers becomes. And Pete wants to punch the bastard who did that to Kao again.

After a nap and a hearty meal, Pete takes Kao outside, into the garden, and they sit on the swing he had installed there. Back and forth, back and forth the swing goes as they lean against each other, their bare feet buried in the soft grass.

“What’s that?” Kao asks then, pointing at the little tangerine, a green and healthy sapling again, its brokenness a thing of the past now.

Pete smiles. The little tree reminds him of Kao, too tough to stay down. “It’s a tangerine. You insisted on buying it that night.”

Kao looks at him, eyebrows raised. “I did? And you planted it?” 

“Yeah. By the time I brought it home, it was rather worse for wear. Some of its branches were broken and… well. But I couldn’t stand the thought it would die,” Pete whispers, his throat a little thick. He’s talking about the tree - but he also isn’t. 

Kao smiles, leaning comfortably against Pete; Pete welcomes it. “But it didn’t. Die I mean,” Kao replies softly. “A brave little tangerine.”

Pete smiles too, hugging Kao around his shoulders and pulling him close. “Yes,” he agrees. “Very brave.”


End file.
